CBS News has learned that congressional investigators have issued a subpoena to a former top security official at the US mission in Libya. The official is Lt. Col. Andy Wood, a Utah National Guard Army Green Beret who headed up a Special Forces "Site Security Team" in Libya.

Lt. Col. Andy Wood led a 16-member Special Forces site security team responsible for protecting U.S. personnel in Libya.

The subpoena compels Lt. Col. Wood to appear at a House Oversight Committee hearing next week that will examine security decisions leading up to the Sept. 11 Muslim extremist terror assault on the U.S. compound at Benghazi. U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three of his colleagues were killed in the attack.

Lt. Col. Wood has told CBS News and congressional investigators that his 16-member team and a six-member State Department elite force called a Mobile Security Deployment team left Libya in August, just one month before the Benghazi assault. Wood says that's despite the fact that US officials in Libya wanted security increased, not decreased.

Wood says he met daily with Stevens and that security was a constant challenge. There were 13 threats or attacks on western diplomats and officials in Libya in the six months leading up to the September 11 attack.

A senior State Department official told CBS News that half of the 13 incidents before September 11 were fairly minor or routine in nature, and that the Benghazi attack was so lethal and overwhelming, that a diplomatic post would not be able to repel it.

Wood, whose team arrived in February, says he and fellow security officials were very worried about the chaos on the ground. He says they tried to communicate the danger to State Department officials in Washington, D.C., but that the officials denied requests to enhance security.

People were asking right after the attack how we ended up with over 30 US citizens isolated in a conflict hot zone in which Al Quaeda and a dozen other terror groups are active, where it took over TWELVE HOURS to get some aid to the site AFTER the attack started. And that aid had to come all the way from Spain.

And now we discover just a month before Steven's and others died in this attack, there WAS a security team on site that could have likely held off this attack..........and this administration pulled it DESPITE repeated requests for more security in the face of growing danger. Oh and I LOVE the State Dept. Sr. Official's brush off to CBS News: "Sure we knew if the terrorists ever seriously came after those guys they were all dead anyway. Did you have a point?" This is even stupider than the WSJ interview where one of these State Dept. retards said their 'security plan in Libya worked'.

Let's get curious: why did it take 3 1/2 weeks to learn this? Those who think this whole 'Benghazigate' thing is a joke that isn't going anywhere might need to rethink that. UPDATE: It's become clear what the Democrat response to this is going to be: Because Congress cut the State Dept.'s security budget, they are going to claim Republicans trying to save a couple of bucks forced the State Dept. to yank these security teams out of Libya due to finances. http://vine.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showpost.php?p=20196593&postcount=385

See, if Republicans weren't such greedy, bean-counting pricks, this team never would have been yanked out of Benghazi.

The problem with this new excuse is even IF Republicans cut the State Dept.'s security budget, they didn't tell ANYBODY to pull teams in hot zones.

What kind of sense would tell this State Dept. facing budget cuts to pull security in it's most dangerous postings in conflict zones? A country where terrorists groups have been killing people and launching attacks?

If your security budget is being cut, adjust your security in safe zones like Paris or Bermuda, etc. Not freaking Libya. Why do I even need to point this out?

This is IF the reason for pulling this special forces team was financial at all. That's not proven in any case yet.

As someone on Twitter pointed out last night, Italy alone has FIVE consulates. Do we really NEED five consulates in a relatively small country like Italy, each with it's own security teams?

COMMON SENSE tells you not to pull security from a post that's undergone attacks in a hot zone. So this excuse won't go anywhere.

Congress cut the State Department Budget? Last I heard, there were 2 houses of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Also, last I heard, the Senate was still in control of the Democrats, who have not passes a budget of any kind in 3 years. Who cut government departmental budgets?

About Me

A Conservative since 1986, I was moved to launch my blogging career on the death of Andrew Breitbart in March 2012. I have been on the internet since 1994, studying Liberal pathology and making PC internet bullies scream in frustration.

Help Support This Blog!

If you enjoy reading this blog and have learned anything useful or informative, please consider supporting my mission to be a citizen journalist and carrying on Andrew Breitbart's righteous indignation by donating whatever you can via PayPal! You can use any credit card too!